The researchers discovered that the genetic activity of mouse skeletal muscles is particularly intense during the first two weeks after birth; a number of genes alter the amount of proteins produced, while other genes go through alternative splicing and produce different proteins. Continue reading →

Catherine Coombs, MD, is an associate member at UNC Lineberger and assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine. In a study of nearly 9,000 people treated for solid tumor cancers, researchers found that radiation treatment and tobacco use were linked to higher rates of blood-based DNA mutations that could lead to higher risk for blood cancers like leukemia. The study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, revealed new risk factors for “clonal hematopoiesis,” a medical phenomenon in which genetic mutations are found in the blood cells of patients who do not have an existing blood cancer. Continue reading →

Melinda Godsey was enjoying a normal day visiting her family in Little Rock when she started to feel sick. I thought I had a stomach virus, she said. Not wanting to infect her grandchildren, she got up the next morning and started the drive back to her home in El Dorado Continue reading →

Using health insurance claims data from more than 480,000 people in nearly 130,000 families, researchers have created a new classification of common diseases based on how often they occur among genetically-related individuals. Researchers hope the work, published this week in Nature Genetics, will help physicians make better diagnoses and treat root causes instead of symptoms. Understanding genetic similarities between diseases may mean that drugs that are effective for one disease may be effective for another one, says senior author Andrey Rzhetsky, professor of medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago. Continue reading →